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My WordPress adventure

I do love a challenge, especially if it increases my knowledge in my fields of interest. I had read and heard about it everywhere… WordPress is such a great program! It is so user-friendly that even people with no experience in building websites can use it. Hence, I should be able to create my own website, which could use an update, in a jiffy with WordPress. So let’s do this!

After a few detours, such as Elegant Themes, I ultimately chose one of WordPress’s own themes: Twenty Twelve. This one is responsive, which is definitely a recommendation if you want your site to look good and work well on smartphones and tablets. With my theme chosen and installed, I was ready to get started, right? Create some pages, fill them with text… Apply a touch of green here and a touch of red there… And I should make my mail address clickable… Let’s check the menu bar now. Why does it say “home”? That should be “why”. Or at least, that is what I typed in! Why the heck does the “why” button not show “why” but instead the word “home”? Let’s try to change this. Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh %$#@%#*^&#^@%!!!!!!! Nothing helps! Breathe in and breathe out… Phewww, I found a tutorial on the internet on how to resolve this. Great! Now I just have to add the header and… Voilà, my website is finished! Hmmmm, this could look better though…

And then it goes wrong – the moment you start thinking about how to make your website more dynamic. For instance: some pages might look better if I add a slider instead of a header with some quotes, given that I am a quote junky. It would also be very cool if people were able to connect with me via different social media. So, these icons have to be added. What else? A contact form is indeed useful. You must strike the iron while it’s hot, right? Shall I add the logos of my clients as clickable pictures? Extra traffic to your site is always welcome, isn’t it? And why shouldn’t I make my website bilingual? This way, English speakers from my network will know exactly what I’m up to. WordPress is mainly for bloggers. Should I try out blogging? It seems like a fun thing to do. Think BIG Franca!!! Maybe there is someone out there who will follow my blog. That would be awesome! Just in case, I will add a registration form… And you can keep on going like this forever… So, I kept on going for a while.

In short, I find that WordPress is a great program. The possibilities are infinite. And that is the dangerous part, for me at least. You keep on adding, trying out and improving things. There is a big chance that you have to postpone your launch date and experience some of these Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh %$#@%#*^&#^@%!!!!!!! moments. Altogether, I must have had 2 of these moments. Well, maybe 200… But luckily, when I really got stuck, I had some backup. I must confess that I could not have done it without the help of my friends Oscar Rottink (technical part) and Eric Scholten (design/photography).

Had I known all of this in advance, would I still have gone on the WordPress adventure? Of course! Like I said before, I do love a challenge.